Are you one of those nostalgia nuts who loves to talk about the old days and how much better they were? You know stuff like "music and movies were way better!", "things were much better value and better quality", "there seemed like there was much more to do" etc... I know I am. I listen to 80s and 90s radio stations, don't rent movies or go to the cinema anymore, generally find myself daydreaming about what was I doing at this time 10 years ago... that sort of thing. However I am split in my decision. I still believe we probably have it better nowadays. Example: imagine being back in a time before the Internet arrived. How did people feed their insatiable hunger for information? (ok ok I know the library, but that involved a little trip ) Just think todays new generation will never know of a time where it didn't exist. But I still think something has been lost in a world where an infinite variety of information and entertainment amongst other things is so readily available. Where is the anticipation, the thrill of waiting and finally getting? Oh I just don't know. It's a toughie. It may just be a case of "grass is greener on the other side" Any thoughts?
What did people do before the internet? They read. My boys would bring home bags of books and go back again the next day. What did people do before television? They played games outside. They used their imagination. Now, we have an obesity problem because television makes a great babysitter. Or just pop in a video or dvd. Someone else teaches your kids their values, good or bad. Traffic is a big problem because every kid gets a car when they reach 16. Do they need one? Probably not. Mom and dad just work harder to pay for the insurance and the kids have more time alone to do their "own thing." DR says he likes going to the swap meet because he gets to talk to real people. People stay inside and watch the television instead of going outside to visit with neighbors. Talking to people over the internet leaves a lot to be desired. Face to face conversation is much better. I do like the internet though DR doesn't much. I'd miss this site if I didn't have it. But, DR is 66 and I am 65 so maybe we are just too old for the changes coming now. Dooley
Dooley said it all for me too except for one thing. It is not that I am too old for change. It is that I am old and grouchy. I see things every day that just make me want to head for the hills. dr
I can think of lots of things that are better like electricity.I got my lesson on kerosene lamps at 12 years old, until I moved in across the field (with my aunt after her hubby died )from mother and dad.I bathed in well water drawn from the well and heated on a wood stove ,or in the summer from a cistern.Having to go to an outhouse,She had indoor plumbing and electricity and yes a tv.We had nothing like that. That started the change for the better but as I look back it was probably for the worse.We can't live without air condition are lights are anything anymore. Change is lots good and lots bad.I myself do miss the good ole days.
There are many things in the past that we tend to romantize or just do not know because we were just children and not part of the grownup world. It is fun to remember the fun stuff of the good old days, but I don't think I would really want to go back there. Doing most of my growing up in the 50's I don't remember going to the movies except on Saturdays and even then the movies were not kid friendly. I saw movies like Man with the Golden Arm (about drug users) , Imitation of Life (interracial marriage and the cruel way the couple was treated) , Lost Weekend (an alcoholic)and The Apartment (men cheating on their wives). There was no rating system and very few kids movies. There were the various "big bug caused by radiation" movies and Vincent Price horror movies......I like movies today better than what we had when I was young. At least there are some funny kids movies to enjoy. I do not listen to the radio at all, I have a lot of CD's I have been collecting of music of my first and second youthhood. For women the past wasn't such a wonderful time for some. Women beaten by thier husbands were patted on the head and told something like -- Little Lady if you would just do what he wants he wouldn't have to treat you this way now would he? Women who were raped were accused of causing the man to not be able to control himself by her attire or the fact that she was walking down the street alone. And in some states, if a husband found his wife in bed with another man he could kill her and never spend a minute in jail, but if he killed the other man he could go to prison for the rest of his life. I used to babysit on weekends a really adorable 5 year old boy down the street when I was in high school. About two years after I married and moved away, my mom told me that the boy (then 7) had died from pneumonia...not the strain that killed Jim Henson, but just a common variety that there was no treatment for. I like the medical advances of today much better. Oh, and don't forget the yearly summer time fear of polio. You did know your neighbors and could leave your house doors unlocked day and night. I do miss sleeping with doors and windows open to the night breeze.. But remembering the long, hot sweating summer days and nights I really do like my air conditioning.
Tony ,I do remember the bad times very much.Maybe to much .We didn't hardly have a pot to pee in much less a window to throw it out of and radio was the only thing we listened too except sitting around the old wood heater listening to the old people talk about the good ole days We were lucky to go to a movie once a year .I remember seeing Peter Pan when it first came out .Boy was that a treat. Go figure.
It's funny this topic should come up because I've been asking myself this same question The advances we've seen in medicine are amazing. The technological advances are pretty phenominal too. But...it seems like family values, a good work ethic and sense of community are long gone. What is going to happen to the next generation if they don't want to work? They are used to having everything handed to them. They don't know what it is like to work and save up to buy your first car. What will they do when Mom & Dad are gone and can no longer give them everything they want? What then? People seem so pre-occupied looking out for themselves that they don't give a hoot about anyone else or the environment either. I don't know. It's a tough question. Deanna :-D
I think every generation fears for what the future holds for kids who don't have to work for what they have. Probably started about the time the first child left the sunup to sundown work on the family farm for life in the city. There kids today who are learning a strong work ethic, probably more of them than the other kind...we just don't see as much of them because they are at work or doing volunteer work, not running around in new cars. Remembering all the bug and weed killing and grass feeding chemicals that were sprayed on yards and parks when I was a kid, the wholesale spraying of chemicals up and down residential streets several times every summer for mosquitos (and we were told there was no need to close windows or doors since it was perfectly safe for humans) and it was common practice for home mechanics and pros to pour automobile oil down the city sewers and the litter along the sides of streets and highways from people just tossing it out the car window....our environmental caretaking may not be perfect yet, but it is so much better than it was in our good old days.
I think television has caused a lot of problems. I "remember" when we didn't have any and when it was only on from 4 PM to 10PM and then it was off the air. My boys didn't get a car until they saved money to buy one. But there is so much good, ?more than bad today but what about tomorrow? Wannabe
I think now in the present is good because people can talk abpout things now in a way they couldn't back when. My father was an alcoholic and that was never spoken about to anyone. The help we could have used, but the social taboo was too much. Instead we all left home at very early ages never to return. We read all the time then and we still do that on the internet. I still have an endless pile of library books. Cancer was a death sentence then but there's lots of hope now. Every single past generation thinks today's kids are awful. Remember when YOU were the awful one with Rock n roll and all that? Today's kids have a lot of monetary things when they need time and attention. Wouldn't you have loved everything you wanted as a child? The world has always been a mess , we are just so much more aware of it now with so much news coverage. Women did nothing but work in the "old days". Now we get to have a life. Horray for Life!
I like most are fence setters on this. The technological side is great! Especially in medicen. I have had quadruple bypass, a replaced hip and I have a defibrilator/ pacemaker inbedded in my left shoulder. If it weren't for that I would have died 5 years ago at age 57. It isn't the modern things like computers, cars, entertainment choices that have made us worse. It is that there are less personal and family values being taught to our children. Th "family" is not a family anymore. Mom and Dad both work to pay for the things we want or think we have to have. So the children suffer. In a lot of places were we live it is not safe for kids to go out and play. Too many children have only one parent or 4 parents. A lot of children have no idea who one of there parents are. Even if kids are being taught family and personal values, they don't hear about it on tv, or see it in the other kids they go to school with.
I have a book called "The Good Old Days, They were Terrible!" - Anytime I begin to get too rosy about the past, I can go to that one - lets me know about all the poisoning, diseases, dangers and oddball things (like no government oversight of foodstuffs or truth in advertising - yikes, some of the stuff people ate!). I didn't have much "stuff and comforts" growing up either, and earned my own car and college - and even though my own kids have it better, they still have to earn their own car and college. I am discouraged when I see what riffraff drifts around the sidewalks of the high school, but then I can look to all the kids I know who are good kids, upright and reasonably polite - And amen hoorah and hallelujah for vaccines, for women being full citizens, for cleaner air and water and for the internet.
